Other REI's
I read Joe's and Shaun's blogs ever day. They are RE investors who chronicle their ventures on a near daily basis like myself. Not only do I gain insightful information from reading, but it also motivates me to hear what and how others in the same boat are doing. I also read Mike's blog. Mike is a soon-to-be RE agent, but also wants to get into RE investing. While reading Joe's blog today, he mentions another investor's blog, Brian. Brian seems like he is at around the same level as Shaun. Even though I've put in 10+ offers on homes, I still feel way behind Joe, Shaun and Brian. This is because I have yet to tap into the motivated seller's market. I just keep hoping one of my REO or HUD offers will come through, but nothing yet. I just have to stop relying on this course of action alone and start getting motivated sellers to call me.
I also touched base with a local RE investor over the weekend via email. I've seen him post on Rich Dad before, and thought I'd start a collaboration. He says there is a small group of investors who meet on Wednesday night's at a local Starbucks to play Cashflow 101 and talk about REI issues. I'll definately have to go there as much as I can to network. It's practically a stone's throw from where I work, so the travel is a lot better than the local REI club meetings.
Prospects and Rejects
I emailed my agent over the weekend to get an update on the properties I had offers outstanding. Two of them were rejected, and the other six she believes are still in play, but she is going to get with the listing agents on Monday to see. Like I said in my previous blog entry, one was from Homevestors, so I can scratch that off, too. This makes it five that are still in play.
I have also analyzed four other properties, which I'll submit bids on soon. Two are HUD's that are still in the 10-day owner-occupied bidding stage, so I have to wait. The third is a bank REO and the fourth is a FNMA foreclosure. I also found one this morning that may be a good prospect.
7 comments:
I emailed offers to my agent on three more properties. One is downright UGLY, and the other two appear to be in retail shape.
Bah! I just found out one of the three properties is a HUD in the OOO period, and the other two have bids coming in from elsewhere. I went ahead and revised my offers for the max I could handle on those two.
Hey Steve. I was going through my blogroll and discovered I didn't have you included! Sorry! I've fixed that problem now. Good luck on the HUDs. I like bidding on VA homes because it's very straightfoward. Their bid sheet includes calculations to show how much the VA will get and they simply choose whichever bids gives them the most. I also like it because they give cash bids an edge over bids requiring loans :-)
Thanks for the info, Shaun (and for linking my site). Two walls that are tough for me to overcome at this stage: time and money. I can pull a downpayment with my 401k proceeds (well, half of them anyway), and I have about 20% equity in my house, which puts me on the cusp of getting a HELOC - even then, it wouldn't amount to much. Other than that, I have to rely on loans. I could use our emergency fund, but the wife is against it at this point (and it isn't big enough anyway to handle full cash offers).
I like your vision of setting up an investor LLC, and may go that route as an alternative. My credit is exceptional, so I can qualify for better deals than most HMLs/PMLs can offer, its just cold cash perks people's ears more than loans (like the VA, apparantly). :-)
Steve, since your personal credit is exceptional you might want to try building your business credit.
Create an LLC
Get a DUNS number
Apply for lines of credit with a personal guarantee (credit line will not show on your personal file)
There are a few specific credit cards that do not require extensive history or company financials. This will help you to get access to some cash until you can refi with a conventional bank.
Thanks. All good ideas. I've looked into creating an LLC, and it doesn't seem too hard (just requires a form, another established LLC's blessing, and $200). Not sure what a DUNS number is, though - something to do with tax filing?
DUNS number is issued by Duns and Bradstreet, one of the business credit reporting agencies.
You can check out creditboards.com for more info. Check out this thread, it would be especially interesting to you, maybe:
http://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=80239
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